Articles Tagged withoffshore tax haven

The destructed land left from the acts of deforestation is an eerie sight. A distant treeline, fallen logs, and disrupted vegetation seem both natural and unnatural, and perhaps rightly so. In a recent investigation performed by Victor Galaz and members of the Stockholm Resilience Center, many acts of Amazonian deforestation can be directly linked to foreign tax havens. Why? Because there’s lots of money to be made in the destruction of these forests, which are eventually used by massive beef and soy companies to turn a profit. However, the fish industry, worth over $23 billion annually, is yet another market at the root of environmental destruction by use of oversea tax havens.

The Link Between Overfishing and Tax Havens

There is a reason why fishing boats are given a daily fish quota, as well as restrictions on the species of fish that they can keep; The environment. The practice of overfishing is capable of wiping out entire species. However, this can be viewed as limited profits for the companies involved in these restrictions; less fish equals less profits. For companies like this, it’s tempting to find a way around these regulations, and foreign tax havens offer the perfect opportunity.

According to a list by Oxfam, a charitable organization that works to alleviate global poverty, Bermuda is the worst corporate tax haven in the world. Joining Bermuda on this list are fourteen other tax havens, which include the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands. But, what makes Bermuda stand out among the others noted on this list?

Creating The List

Oxfam did not take the creation of this list lightly. In order to determine the tax havens that belonged on the list, Oxfam carefully researched numerous factors, including the presence of exceptionally low or nonexistent corporate tax rates and unfair tax incentives. Oxfam also took into consideration the cooperation, or lack of cooperation, of these tax havens in regards to international regulations designed to combat tax evasion. During its extensive research, Oxfam found that Bermuda and other British territories were among the worst tax havens in the world. This is especially true when considering the United State’s use of these tax havens.

Reports from London have shown that nearly a third of the billionaires located in Britain plan to or have already moved to areas considered tax havens. In addition to this sudden shift, there is also talk of an investigation into political party bankrolling from those that have chosen to relocate, as well as the delay in a vote involving the end of secret company ownership in offshore territories.

According to the Times news, 28 out of the 93 recorded British billionaires have been found through public record to have moved or been in the process of moving to a tax haven within the last decade.

Tax havens are locations in the world in which taxation is extremely light or sometimes even non-existent. Examples of these are the Channel Islands or countries like Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates that pay little to no tax.

Google, a renowned international technology company, was found to be using a Dutch shell company in order to reduce its foreign tax bill in 2017 by shifting $24 billion, 19.9 billion euros, of its revenue from royalties to Bermuda. The amount shifted in 2017 through the Netherlands was 4 billion euros more than what was documented in 2016. This information is according to documents filed at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.

To further explain how this worked, Google used the subsidiary in the Netherlands, Google Netherlands Holdings BV, to shift their revenue made outside of the United States, their home country, to an affiliated base in Bermuda, which is essentially a known tax haven where companies are not required to pay an income tax. This base is called Google Ireland Holdings, and the tax strategy used here is known as the “Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich”. Surprisingly, this is a legal strategy which has allowed Google, who is owned by Alphabet, to avoid US income taxes and European withholding taxes, saving a large portion of their overseas profits.

The Sackler family empire comprises Purdue in America, Napp in Britain, and Mundipharma in Europe and Australasia. The companies have helped amass a £10 billion fortune, protected, in part, by the tax haven of Bermuda.

The Evening Standard in the UK released a report detailing that while their opioid painkillers are manufactured in Cambridge, the Caribbean is actually the heart of the Sacklers’ tax avoidance strategy. They report the Sackler family has allegedly diverted billions of pounds in profit to Bermuda to avoid paying millions in taxes that would have been due to the UK or Europe.

After a lawsuit was filed against investigative journalist, Pelin Ünker, for her reporting on the Paradise Papers, an Istanbul court has found her guilty of defaming Turkey’s former Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim. For speaking against Yildirim and reporting on his confirmed offshore activities, Ünker has been sentenced to thirteen months in jail and a substantial fee. However, this unjust ruling is truly unique, as it appears to have involved several political motivations in an effort to send a message to other Turkish journalists and silence similar reports in the future.

The Paradise Papers

But, what exactly are the Paradise Papers? The Paradise Papers are essentially a vast collection of leaked documents including emails, deeds, loan agreements, financial statements, and additional documents that reveal how several politicians, celebrities, and entire corporations stored hidden profits in offshore tax havens. The documents were initially leaked to a German newspaper from offshore service providers. However, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) agreed to review the documents before publishing any written work on the released documents. This movement brought together the investigative journalists and media partners of six continents; Pelin Ünker was one of these journalists.

Swirling around in the media and online is a leak of financial documents called The Paradise Papers. Within the terabits of information lies the documented offshore accounts of politicians, celebrities, multinational corporations and even royalty. There is something else buried in the data according to The Gateway—money laundering and tax evasion.